The Methodist University College, Ghana (MUCG) is advocating the creation of a mechanism to allow private tertiary institutions access government supports.

According to Professor Akwasi Asabere-Ameyaw, Principal, MUCG, government support was necessary to cushion the schools which were currently saddled with financial constraints.

“Our major challenge has to do with finance. There has been talk about the creation of a research fund by government. Looking at the role private institutions are playing to promote national development, I propose the establishment of a mechanism through we can also benefit from these government provisions,” he stressed.

Speaking to the Ghanaian Times in an interview, Professor Asabere-Ameyaw called for a national forum to bring together stakeholders to deliberate on how best to implement policies geared towards improving the educational sector.

He bemoaned the present large number of students in tertiary institutions and lack of corresponding facilities to enable teaching and learning adding that there was the need for a revamp of the system to incorporate current situations and developments including reduced government subventions to allow institutions design their own growth strategy.

Presently, the College which has a student population of about 3,000, he said was seeking to initiate processes to liaise with its parent shareholder to establish an endowment fund, dedicated to supporting the school’s growth and expansion.

As part of its contributions to addressing the problem of unemployment in the country, the Principal said the College was running a Centre for Entrepreneurship Education, Research and Training to provide skills and the required training necessary for students to actualise their own business ideas after graduation.

“We want to train our students in an integrated approach, where they can exploit various opportunities rather than waiting on government or any other individual for employment. At the Wenchi campus for instance, which is focused on agriculture, we have combined farming, technology and other practical models to train the students on improving yields as well as processing food crops into products. This allows one to engage in farming and at the same time grow an agribusiness, capable of employing others as well,” he added.

Prof. Asabere-Ameyaw noted that the MUCG, as part of its strategy to produce skilled and innovative labour, was in constant engagement with local industries to help in reviewing and updating teaching curriculums to meet their human resource needs.

In the short term, the Principal said the school would pursue infrastructural development on its four campuses across the country, upgrade of equipment and increase admission profile to accelerate the realisation of its objective of becoming the best private university in the sub region.

“We have the vision to grow and become the best private university in the sub region. We can only achieve that through bringing in more infrastructure and required facilities to complement the efforts of teachers and non-teaching staff. We hope to use that as the springboard to making us the school of choice and competing favourably on the continent,” he added.